Incredible Year for the Brig Niagara – Awards, Fundraising and Movie Roles !

The Brig Niagara has had an incredible year.   The ship and its captain have been honored with major awards, the organization has raised significant sums to support the ship and the ship has been featured in a new PBS documentary. Just … Continue reading

Stealth Sub Jimmy Carter Ready to Spy on North Korea

In August of this year, ex-President Jimmy Carter traveled to North Korea on a diplomatic mission to free a captive American.  Now the submarine which bears his name is reported to be nearing North Korea as well.   Following the shelling of … Continue reading

Chesapeake Light Craft Sells its 20,000th Kit !

A friend has a wooden kayak that he built from a kit.  It is simple in both design and construction – a stitch and glue plywood boat covered with fiberglass cloth.  It paddles well, is light weight and is very pretty.  Very difficult to ask for more than … Continue reading

After 67 years, the truth of HMS Dasher tragedy is revealed

In 1940 and 1941, Moore McCormack Lines took delivery of four Rio class C3 Class passenger/cargo liners from Sun Shipbuilding.   They were the Rio Hudson, the Rio Parana, the Rio de la Plata and the  Rio de Janeiro.  In May … Continue reading

New Biography of Joshua Slocum by Geoffrey Wolff

The Boston Globe has an interesting interview with Geoffrey Wolff, who has written a new biography of Joshua Slocum, The Hard Way Around: The Passages of Joshua Slocum. The book also got a rave review by Nathaniel Phibrick in the New York … Continue reading

Stealth Submarines – Concerns in Asia & Flaking Tiles in the US

Aren’t all submarines supposed to be stealthy?  I suppose some are stealthier than others.  The South China Morning Post in Hong Kong is reporting concerns by China’s neighbors that China may have already built a stealth submarine.  On the other side of … Continue reading

The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks and Giants of the Ocean by Susan Casey, – A Review

Sea monsters exist. They break ships in half and pull them below the waves. Sometimes they swallow them whole. Most who encounter them never return to tell the tale and those few who do, until very recently, were rarely believed. … Continue reading

MV Lugela Hijacked then Freed off Somalia after Crew Retreats to Engine Room

Well planned passive resistance proved to be an effective tactic for the crew of the MV Lugela this weekend.  Earlier this month we posted about the hijacking and subsequent recapture of the M/V Magellan Star from Somali pirates by US Marine commandos, after … Continue reading

Mir-2 mini-sub Finds Czar’s Gold Treasure on Baikal Lake bed ?

Intriguing, if it turns out to be true. Czar’s gold treasure found on Baikal Lake bed The legendary gold treasure of Russia’s last Czar could have been found by Mir-2 mini submarine on the bed of the world’s deepest fresh … Continue reading

Trouble on the Delaware – Three Historic Ships at Risk

The day after Philadelphia’s tall ship, the newly repaired, Gazela, arrived in New York harbor, an article in this morning’s New York Times focussed on the three historic ships in trouble on the Delaware River, in or near Philadelphia – the Olympia, the battleship … Continue reading

Barquentine Gazela Returns To Sea

Philadelphia’s tall ship, the barquentine Gazela has returned to to sea after five years of being limited to protected water sailing due to a damaged rudder.  With a new rudder, the turn-of-the-century Portuguese-built barquentine set sail from Philadelphia bound where she … Continue reading

Collision in the North-East Passage – Two Arctic Tankers Collide

With the onset of limited trans-arctic navigation environmentalists have voiced concern about the potential for pollution due to increased ship traffic.   The recent collision  between two arctic tankers, the Indiga and Varzuga, on the Russian Northern Sea route, demonstrates the basis for these concerns. … Continue reading